Just so we’re clear, right off the bat; Avowed is truly excellent. Obsidian’s epic fantasy RPG is killer from start to finish. It doesn’t matter that it’s not open-world. It doesn’t matter that its scope has apparently been reduced since announcement. All that matters is that Avowed is essential RPG gaming.
Set in the same world as the Pillars of Eternity games, Avowed moves away from isometric, turn-based gameplay and drops players into a first/third (but really first, don’t bother with third) person, realtime RPG. This is Obsidian doubling down on the universe, lore and world of Eora. Avowed is bringing Eora to the mass-market and hopefully dragging some of that market back to Pillars of Eternity.
Set after the events of both Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire, Avowed sees you step into the boots of the Emperor’s Envoy on a mission to the Living Lands to investigate a mysterious plague, put a stop to the violent uprisings against the Empire and, of course, save the day.
Avowed Review
Like all good RPGs, in Avowed (after you’ve spent 45 minutes to an hour creating your character) you find yourself washed up on a beach after a nasty shipwreck. Far from where you’re supposed to be, alone and wanting answers, you trudge your way through the sand to look for clues. As you explore, you start to learn about your mission and its importance.
Apparently, an island in Eora, The Living Lands, has done itself something of a mischief. Suffering from an odd plague, dubbed the Dreamscourge, flora, fauna and people alike are becoming afflicted and threaten to destroy the Living Lands from the inside out. You, the Emperor’s personal Envoy, and a Godlike, have been sent to sort this mess out.
Questions are likely to abound if you’re not well-versed in Pillars of Eternity, but there’s really no point in me doing a poor job of explaining the incredibly detailed and in-depth world of these games. Suffice it to say, Godlikes are a very rare and unique race in this world and you’re one of them. The Dreamscourge is a mushroom based affliction that turns people into violent lunatics and the Living Lands are a semi-lawless frontier for the downtrodden, despised and those seeking a second chance.
Honestly, Avowed does such an incredible job of setting the scene you really should just play it and experience the splendour for yourself.
Anyway, after brushing the sane form your hair and realising you’re not actually even on the Living Lands as yet, this first island/area serves as something of a tutorial. Here, Obsidian introduces you to most of Avowed’s many systems and mechanics as well as letting you come to grips with its gameplay.
As a realtime RPG, Avowed exists sort of, in the same space as Skyrim. The game has been compared endlessly to Bethesda’s magnum opus and for good reason, but Avowed is also an entirely different beast. There are many similarities; they’re both realtime fantasy RPGS. They both allow you to alter your class in realtime and choose your playstyle based on equipped weapons and they both offer something in the way of epic, first-person fantasy storytelling.
But, Avowed isn’t trying to be Skyrim and it is, essentially a very different game. Avowed is not open world. And this sets Avowed quite apart from Skyrim. Instead, Avowed has much more in common with Obsidian’s own The Outer Worlds. Like The Outer Worlds, Avowed is separated into large areas, each associated with a main mission in the campaign and smaller side quests. You can freely travel between these areas (once they’ve been unlocked) but you can’t walk from one side of the map to the other.
Each area contains multiple missions, locations, quests and more but they unfurl in order. There’s no way to reach the game’s fourth main area until you’ve completed the previous three. Avowed isn’t entirely linear, nor is it truly free. And frankly, I love that about it. It’s so deliciously old school and so perfectly suited to telling a well-crafted story that it almost makes me giddy with delight. Story telling in video games has declined sharply with the rise in open-world and open ended gaming. It is impossible to tell an engaging narrative when you have no control of where your player is going to go.
Avowed takes advantage of the best of both worlds; players have plenty of freedom, but the story can only really unfold as it was always intended. Avowed and Baldur’s Gate 3 are similar in that respect. There’s no risk of you coming at the main quest from some bizarre sideways angle because you decided to go off and complete some obscure side quest. It might seem counter intuitive, but it’s refreshing to have some restriction. It makes for a better story which makes for a better game. I get so bored and disillusioned with games that offer ultimate freedom because I have no idea where I should go. I am paralysed by choice and thus, end up making no choices. With Avowed, I have the illusion of choice, but the golden path can never be strayed from.
Speaking of storytelling, Avowed does some of its best work outside of any quests or map markers. The environmental story telling in Avowed id world class. There are many, many examples of this as you play but one from early on stands out as a great example. While exploring the first area — Dawnshore — I came across a campsite that appeared to have been burned and destroyed. I found a diary there, which belonged to a Pyromancer. Reading the diary I learned how the Pryomancer had lost control and burned his campsite (and possibly his compatriots) to the ground, but he was not to be dissuaded and would stop at nothing to master his craft.
His diary mentioned that he would continue his training and that he had found a spot, overlooking the campsite, with which to keep practicing. Nothing of this discovery or diary made its way into my journal or map. There was no map marker, nothing added to the mini-map and no real clues of where to go other than the Pyromancer’s own description, but I was absolutely hooked. I had to find where the Pyromancer went and what he was up to, so much so that I became sidetracked for a good hour, desperate to find where he went. Eventually, I located him and I was not disappointed.
I didn’t complete any quest. I didn’t earn experience and I didn’t check something off my digital list, but I felt so accomplished because I had followed the breadcrumbs built into the game world and it had paid off. There are so many examples of this kind of environment storytelling/gameplay in Avowed that it’s breathtaking. In 2025, more often than not, anything, anything, that even remotely has a reward tied to it, is marked on your map and you are funnelled towards it. Modern gaming IS fetch quests in disguise. Avowed tries something new (old) and forces you to work for answers and while you might not get that sweet dopamine hit seeing “Mission Accomplished” splash across your screen, you get an altogether far more rewarding feeling when you hunt down something small and insignificant that makes the Living Lands feel alive.
On the flipside of the Living Lands being alive, there is you making things very, very dead. Combat in Avowed is mostly realtime but with a brilliant blend of pausing to activate special abilities for both you and your party. You’re able to equip two sets of weapons and switch between them at will and your entire playstyle is essentially based around what weapons you choose to equip…and the list is exhaustive. There are swords, daggers, axes, two-handed swords (or axes), wands, grimoires, spears, pistols, rifles, bows and more. Sick of using the sword and shield setup you’ve had going on for a while, press a button and switch to your other loadout.
Sick of both? Change both loadouts and try something completely new. Obviously, it’s not quite that simple, but in essence it kind of is. Effectiveness with your weapons is influenced by your stats and abilities which you increase as you level up. Governing stats might, intellect, resolve, dexterity, constitution and perception might help with one weapon or another but it’s your abilities that truly decide who you want to play as.
Abilities are split between three distinct classes; Fighter, Ranger and Wizard. As you level up, you gain points to spend and can choose one ability to unlock or improve. Fighter abilities are related to close combat, while Ranger deals in ranged/sneak attacks and Wizard is all about magic. My explanation is a bit reductive as it goes much, much deeper than that but you get the gist. Thankfully, you can respec at any point for the cost of some in-game cash. It’s quick, easy and painless and makes it worthwhile experimenting with all of the different options on offer. Similarly, all of these options mean there’s plenty of reasons to go back and play again if you prefer to stick with one class for the duration.
As for the pause menu and abilities mentioned previously, unlocked abilities can be mapped to as button or activated from the pause menu, as can party abilities. Depending on what you’ve unlocked, you can activate all manner of buffs, debuffs, AOE attacks and more. From this pause menu you can also scoff food and potions to keep yourself alive, take less damage or deal more to your enemies. It’s not quite like playing Pillars of Eternity but it’s certainly a clever nod to the turn-based roots Eoran-based games come from.
While it’s all well and good to work out how you’re going to deal damage, the actual dealing of said damage is a bit trickier. Enemy difficulty is tied to gear stats rather than levels and so, in order to always be on the cutting edge, you need to constantly be improving your weapons and armour. Upgrades require a variety of crafting materials that steadily ramp us as you move through the ranks, with the highest level of gear requiring some truly eyewatering amounts to complete. But, you’ll need to stay on top of it.
Should you have “Exceptional” Gear equipped and enemies’ gear is a level or even two levels above, you are going to be dealing about as much damage as Mr Burns to the hot-dog admissions officer. As you progress through each chapter, enemies will be equipped with better and better gear and weapons so you’re going to need to spend your time doping side-quests, finding gear to break down for parts and upgrading your weapons of choice. Interestingly, it’s only your equipped gear and your main piece of armour that need to be and can be upgraded. Other gear like gloves, boots and trinkets have one set level and don’t need to be changed. It’s a good streamlining as things could quickly spiral out of control if you’re needing top upgrade half a dozen or more bits of equipment.
The best items you can acquire are uniques; weapons or armour that grant you special stats or abilities. For example, an early sword can deal additional fire damage while a special axe adds extra frost. These unique weapons can be further augmented at your party camp to further suit your playstyle, but be warned, once you have upgraded the perk in one way or another, you can’t go back, so make sure you’re choosing the best fit for your playthrough. It’s one of only a handful of areas where your choices are locked for the duration.
The other major one is of course in dialogue and the choices you make during quests. Obsidian gives you plenty of rope in Avowed and you can make the Envoy whoever you want them to be. There’s freedom in every conversation and every nuance of every response has a purpose and an outcome. However you choose to roleplay as this character, it will come back to you a thousand fold. Your choices and decisions matter and can drastically alter the story and outcome of Avowed. Should you not be happy with how things spun out, start again and make different choices.
And why wouldn’t you, playing Avowed is pure joy. Playing the same missions more than once doesn’t feel like a chore because you can change your decisions, change your weapons, change your armour and chance your skills. You can be an entirely different character anytime you like but should you choose to be a monolith in your first playthrough, you are going to be shocked and surprised by what you find should you choose to play differently on your second, third and even fourth goes around.
The lore of Eora is based heavily on the notion of reincarnation, rebirth and the “turning of the wheel” and so it makes sense that Obsidian has made playing and replaying Avowed akin to that experience. There are a multitude of permutations in Avowed and each is worthy of experiencing and exploring. The truly hardcore fans are going to be playing and replaying and replaying Avowed for years to come.
Avowed is a genuine triumph and one of the first major releases from Xbox game dev buying spree that will pay dividends. It’s a deep, complex and though-provoking RPG from masters of the genre. It revels in being played and tugs at the back of your lizard brain beckoning you back when you take a break.
It has plenty of connections, lore and easter eggs for fans and players of Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire to sink their teeth into but those with no knowledge of that franchise will be at a disadvantage. The world of Eora has already been so thoroughly established that not being a Pillars of Eternity player will leave you in the cold. It doesn’t make Avowed any less excellent, but it does mean you miss out and can find yourself lost when it comes to certain references.
Beyond that, and the few pre-release bugs I experienced (all of which I was assured would be patched for release) Avowed is a kind of new school/old school conglomeration that just works. More than that, it sings. Avowed is one of the best video games of the past five years and is a true testament to the talent, dedication and work ethic that lives at Obsidian.
If you don’t have a Game Pass subscription, Avowed is a reason to get one. If you don’t want to subscribe, then you better buy a copy and thank me later. Avowed is tremendous and deserves to be played by as many people as possible, because this is a game that wants, nay, needs to be played.
Avowed was reviewed on Xbox Series X using code provided by Microsoft.
